Australian news and politics recap March 27: Peter Dutton outlines election pitch in Budget reply

Former Foreign Affairs Minister and current Australian National University Chancellor Julie Bishop has been hit with a “no confidence” motion by staff.

About 800 ANU staff who are National Tertiary Education Union members have voted overwhelmingly in the negative to the question “Do you have confidence in the leadership of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor?”

It comes as a number of scandals grip the university, including revelations the Vice-Chancellor Professor Genevieve Bell held a second job at Intel, and Ms Bishop used ANU funds to pay her business partner as a consultant.

Morale is said to be at “rock bottom” at the university, with a number of other issues also causing discontent, including job cuts, a bid to take away a pay rise and a $60m budget forecast blunder.

In a written statement, NTEU ACT Division Secretary Dr Lachlan Clohesy said it was now up to the ANU Council to “deliberate on whether they believe the positions of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor are still tenable”.

“It’s not just the very serious conflicts of interest. It’s the culture of fear and intimidation, the financial mismanagement, the job cuts, blaming staff and referring to them as ‘inefficiencies’, the parking fee hike, the childcare closures, and attempting to take away a staff pay increase.

“ANU leadership overestimated the size of the 2024 deficit by more than $60 million. They then disestablished the College of Health and Medicine, attempted to take away a staff pay increase, and cut jobs and courses based on their erroneous budgeting. ANU staff demand accountability.”

Huge news coming from Canberra, with multiple sources confirming the election campaign is actually going to be called sooner rather than later.

Katina Curtis reports:

Speculation is reaching fever pitch that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit the Governor-General on Friday morning to call the election.

Public service and political staffer sources are preparing for the election to be called on Friday.

The PM has been asked the question of when the date will be in a slate of radio interviews this morning – prompting to tell one station he will call it just to stop the questions.

Separately, he told Triple M he would be calling it “imminently”.

“I can confirm that I’m not calling it today, but I will call it soon. I think that Australians want to get on with it. Certainly my Caucus colleagues do,” he said.

Moving on to the north west gas shelf decision, Michaelia Cash has tried to get some answers out of Penny Wong.

Senator Wong, who is representing the PM in estimates, says she hasn’t discussed with Antony Albanese when the decision to push out the decision to May 31

was made.

There was a lot of taking on notice by both Senator Wong and some PM&C officials about the finer details of the issue, which has Senator Cash incredulous given how big a deal it is to her home state of WA.

Senator Wong reminds her the state government has had six years to make a decision, and the Federal Government only received the report in February.

She urged the Liberal senator against “politicising” the approval process as Senator Cash tried to get Senator Wong to spell out why the project is so important to the state.

“These are matters for a different department. The Prime Minister is not responsible for this process,” Senator Wong said, pointing questions towards the Environment department.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has refused to be drawn into “hypotheticals” under questioning about whether the Labor Government would arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu if he was to travel to Australia.

In Senate estimates this morning, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash has tried to get Senator Wong, representing the Prime Minister, to confirm what Labor’s position is on the International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

Things got pretty fiery, with Coalition Senator James McGrath piping in too, but ultimately Senator Wong said she wouldn’t “speculate on hypotheticals”.

She pointed them back to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ public statements.

“We will not speculate on hypotheticals, Australia is a party to the Rome Statute (which created the ICC),” she said, also pointing out the Coalition had been the one to sign up to said statute.

“As the Attorney-General has said, we won’t speculate on hypotheticals.”

She said Senator Wong was sending a “strong message to Jewish Australians”, to which the Foreign Minister urged the Coalition against importing the Middle East conflict to Australia, and heeding ASIO’s warning to dial down the temperature.

She said the Government continued to call for the release of hostages and for a ceasfire, condemning Hamas while also urging Israel to abide by international humanitarian law.

“That is a principled position,” she said.

“We have seen 50,000 Palestinians die in this conflict. I think we have to hold principle here.”

Senator Wong said Mr Albanese had last spoken to his Israeli counterpart on April 3 last year.

Senators Cash and McGrath say a Dutton Government would “certainly welcome” PM Netanyahu to Australia and not arrest him.

“There is a clear choice at this election,” they said.

Senator Wong chimes in that there “certainly is a choice”, pointing out that in his major foreign policy speech last week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton made no mention to India, Indonesia, Japan, South Corea, ASEAN, the Quad, or Papua New Guinea.

“It really shows the extent to which Peter Dutton is both ignorant about and ignoring our region, which is nothing short of reckless.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Government will not match Peter Dutton’s promise to cut fuel excise and has refused to concede voters could be better off under the Coalition promise.

“The Coalition doesn’t have any plans to help people with the cost of living in an enduring way and what it means is the economic policy that they will take to the election is higher taxes for every taxpayer, secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors and no ongoing help with the cost of living,” he said on Sky News.

Dr Chalmers said the Government had “its own plan” when asked if they would match the promise.

The Treasurer has slammed the Coalition for a “stunning admission” that will “haunt them every day of the campaign” after the Opposition confirmed it would overturn Labor’s new tax cuts.

Tax relief and cost-of-living measures are shaping up to be the key battleground of the election campaign after the Government’s surprise $5-a-week tax cut in this week’s Budget, which was immediately opposed by the Coalition as an “election bribe.”

After Labor fast-tracked legislation for the cuts, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor confirmed “we absolutely would repeal it” on Thursday morning.

“This is the most important difference between Labor and the Coalition,” responded Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s policy.

“He’s taken to the election higher taxes on Australian workers, and we won’t let them forget it.”

Mr Dutton on Wednesday revealed his own big election pitch to immediately halve the fuel excise for a year and save motorists about $14 a week.

But Dr Chalmers rejected the plan as offering “no ongoing cost of living help” for Australians.

“Their platform is for higher taxes for workers, secret cuts to pay for nuclear reactors, and no ongoing help with the cost of living,” he said.

Labor Health Minister Mark Butler has told Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to “come clean” on what he plans to cut to fund the Coalition’s Budget after promising a 50 per cent cut to the fuel excise if elected.

Mr Butler said Labor were “not contemplating” backing Mr Dutton’s plan.

“What we see is three years of him blocking cost of living relief to Australians,” Mr Butler told Sunrise.

“What Peter Dutton needs to do tonight is come clean with Australians.

“He said what he’s going to spend, but he hasn’t told Australians what he will cut to pay for that.”

Read more on Peter Dutton’s fuel excise cut promise.